Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas deploys BlackBerry 10 and BES10

Mexican electronics/banking/television conglomerate Grupo Salinas has made the jump to BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10. With 68,000 employees (most of whom are not be getting corporate smartphones, but still, that's a lot) spread across the company and more than US$57 billion in annual revenue, Grupo Salinas represents a big get for BlackBerry.

The big news here is the adoption of BES10 by Grupo Salinas, which they will use to manage their multi-platform fleet of smartphones, including iOS and Android devices. They'll also be trialling BlackBerry Secure Work Space on those non-BlackBerry devices.

Grupo Salinas is has added the BlackBerry Z10, Z30, and Q10 to their fleet of smartphones, but only totaling 350 devices. For a company of 68,000, that's not exactly a huge deployment — it's more an amount you'd use to test to see how well BlackBerry 10 fits the company's needs.

Press release:

Grupo Salinas Depends on BlackBerry 10 for Its Operations in México

Mexico City, Mexico – BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a world leader in mobile communications, and Grupo Salinas – a Mexican group of companies with a presence in media, financial, telecomm, banking, insurance and pension funds – announced today that Grupo Salinas has deployed the BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) enterprise mobility management solution (EMM) to manage and secure smartphones, and has also incorporated 350 BlackBerry® 10 smartphones to its fleet of mobile devices.

Besides implementing BES10 and adding a mix of BlackBerry® Z10, BlackBerry® Q10 and BlackBerry® Z30 devices for its mobility needs, Grupo Salinas will also trial BlackBerry's Secure Work Space (SWS) for iOS® and Android™ devices. Secure Work Space is a containerization option for separating work and personal content and offers added security. BES10 and SWS enables Grupo Salinas's IT department to manage thousands of mobile terminals that operate within its corporate environment from a single, highly secure, reliable platform.

"We have been truly impressed by the performance of the BlackBerry 10 smartphones that have been incorporated into our mobile infrastructure," said engineer Gustavo Vega, Director of Systems and Communications, "In particular, the BlackBerry Z30 with five-inch all-touch display, outstanding battery life, and the QWERTY keyboard and premium specs of the BlackBerry Q10 definitely enrich the mobility options for our corporate users at Grupo Salinas."

Enterprises that deploy BES10 on BlackBerry 10 devices can use BlackBerry® Balance™, which securely separates personal and corporate data. As a result, Grupo Salinas is able to manage and secure its business-related information, while users can run personal applications without the risk of corporate data being shared with personal contacts.

"Grupo Salinas has a complex mobility ecosystem that operates different mobile platforms and has personnel with diverse requirements. The BES10 solution simplifies our operations and allows timely and secure communications across all of our businesses," said the Director of Systems and Communications

"BlackBerry is committed to offering the most secure end-to-end enterprise mobility solution on the market. Our solutions increase productivity and provide employees with the required tools to stay connected and access business information," said Jorge Aguiar, Regional Managing Director for Latin America at BlackBerry. "We have worked with Grupo Salinas for several years in providing secure mobile communications for its different businesses. With the implementation of BES10 and the incorporation of BlackBerry 10 devices to their network, BlackBerry solidifies its position as a key partner supporting the operations of one of the most important groups of companies in Mexico and the entire Latin America region."

In order to accelerate adoption of the BES10 platform, BlackBerry recently launched the new BlackBerry's EZ Pass migration program, which provides free migration to BlackBerry's BES10 platform. For more information about the BlackBerry EZ Pass migration program, please visit: www.blackberry.com/ezpass.

I'm from México... With this I hope they add more Blackberry 10's to Iusacell (which is the carrier I use and half owned by Grupo Salinas [and Televisa]) they only have Q10's, no Z10's, no Z30, that's why I still have and use my faithfull (but not that functional anymore =/) Storm 2 (and playbook). I wanted a Z10 from day one, now I want a Z30 with cheap but good quality Iusacell!
I know it hasn't anything to do with deployment of BES 10 ... But I can hope....

It looks like people aren't factoring the license revenue for the iOS and Android devices that will be managed by their BES10 deployment, not to mention the licenses for the 350 BB10 devices. The important thing is that they're generating recurring revenue on BB and non-BB devices. There is nothing negative here.

Sounds like they're updating from legacy BES. Let's hope this test goes well for BlackBerry, ans we get another press release when the organisation rolls it out globally.
Nice one BlackBerry - another step towards tipping point for BES10.

I read it. Only a handful are getting BB10 devices. There are still a number of non BlackBerry phones which requires BES10 licenses. Even if the number is 5k. It adds up. Add them all up and that equates to more than "pennies"

It just shows that going multiple platform is helping BlackBerry hardware sell. Before BlackBerry hardware sold BES5 a free service. Now it has flipped that BES10 is helping sell or test BlackBerry 10.